Home is where your chair is…

After putting up the majority of the beam ceiling we have been working on we were left with lots of cutoffs due to the limited supply of lengths from our supplier. I knew for sure that I could not throw such fine material away in the dumpster what I didn’t know was what I could do with it. I have limited room in my shop to store wood as you can imagine a guy like me with a major wood fetish drags a lot of it home. So I knew I needed to do something with it and sooner rather than later due to the rather large footprint it takes up in my small shop.

So this past weekend I began the arduous job of cutting the big beams into small pieces of wood of various thicknesses,widths and lengths. What do I have in mind you ask? My take on the classic Morris chair following the brilliant design that was thought up in the 1860’s by William Morris and Company.

The chair has such classic lines I feel it’s true beauty lies in its honesty, with all of the exposed joinery. The through tenons exposed on both the front,sides and back of the chair lets the simple craftsmanship of the piece become the art. One of the truly great philosophical ideas that came out of the arts and crafts period.

Up to this point nothing has been glued,screwed or nailed all just held together with the mortise and tenons. Now that everything has been dry fit I am going to take it apart sand,route and do a once over before re-assembling it, this time with glue. Then I will move onto the back of the chair that will have the ability to be placed in several different inclines by removing a dowel. Old-school recliner.

The chair will have removable cushions that I will also make but am undecided what type of material I should go with. Leather would be traditional but I am leaving it open until the chair is finished and stained to make the final decision. Besides the chair traditionally would also have been made from oak and I am making mine from Douglas Fir (free) so I am already breaking tradition so all bets are off.

If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.William Morris

The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.William Morris